


An Extra Hour In The Ball Pit

by pocketmumbles (livelikejack)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 10:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3444476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livelikejack/pseuds/pocketmumbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Allison smiles and grabs one of the labeled balls at random. “Okay, so this one says…find something you both have in common.”</p><p>They glance at each other awkwardly for a moment. “Well,” Isaac begins. “We all…have…vowels in our names.”</p><p>“Scott only has one vowel,” Allison says. “So we all have at least one vowel in our name! …Just like almost everyone in this city,” she realizes, trailing off with a snort.</p><p>Her laugh is infectious; Scott can’t help but join in. “We are doing so good.”</p><p> </p><p>  <em>(Or, an AU where werewolves are known, no one knows each other, and Scott, Isaac, and Allison volunteer to sit in a ball pit in front of a camera and play ice breakers with a complete stranger. Inspired by SoulPancake’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfHV4-N2LxQ">Take A Seat, Make A Friend</a> video.)</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	An Extra Hour In The Ball Pit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [slythatheart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/slythatheart/gifts).



> For the Teen Wolf Rarepair Exchange, Round 3. Beta'd by [bleep0bleep](http://archiveofourown.org/users/bleep0bleep/pseuds/bleep0bleep); all mistakes are mine.
> 
> Werewolves are known in this ‘verse, and normalized to the point that, like, Hollywood romcoms get made about werewolf culture and stuff. Also, pretty much no one knows each other in this, and they’re all out of high school.
> 
> We all know where the title is from. I am so sorry. It started as a joke but then I ended up actually liking it because I am the worst.

Scott’s already getting outfitted with a mic to wear during the video while an assistant tapes over the Triumph logo on his shirt when the producer – Kira, if Scott remembers her name correctly – walks over. “We’ve got a problem.”

Scott looks down at his shirt. “Do I have to take this off?”

“No, the tape’s fine,” Kira says, nodding absently. “But Cora had to leave. We don’t have time to find a new partner for Isaac.”

Scott glances at the girl next to him, then the boy on his other side already wired with a mic. “So, uh, did you want me to…”

Kira taps something into her Samsung Galaxy Note and looks up. “So we’re going to put all three of you together for this activity. I know we initially told you there’d be two of you, but will that be alright?”

The others nod. “Sure,” Scott says with an easy shrug. “Plenty of room in the ball pit, right?”

 

“Well, this is interesting,” the girl says as she settles down gingerly into the ball pit. “I haven’t been in a ball pit since…my cousin’s sixth birthday party, I think.”

The boy on Scott’s other side tries to sit down and ends up crashing into Scott as he falls over. “Sorry,” he says as Scott steadies him. “I’ve never actually been in a ball pit before.”

The girl’s eyebrows shoot up. “No way!” Scott says. “Never?” The boy shakes his head with a faint smile. “Well, it’s a good thing you’re here now, then. Everyone should try hanging out in a ball pit at least once. It’s an experience, y’know?”

“And with this one, you don’t even have to deal with little kids shrieking in your ears,” the girl says with a nod. “And these balls are probably way cleaner.”

Scott grins. “Yeah, dirty balls are no fun.”

The boy snorts, and the girl’s eyes dance with amusement before she tosses a ball at him. “Oh, I’m Allison, by the way.”

“Isaac,” the boy says, waving on Scott’s other side.

“And I’m Scott,” Scott says with a nod. He tries to shake both their hands without facing away from either of them (and just ends up looking weirdly standoffish), and then Isaac almost falls over when he leans over to shake Allison’s hand. “Yeah, we’re off to a great start.”

Allison smiles and grabs one of the labeled balls at random. “Okay, so this one says…find something you both have in common.”

They glance at each other awkwardly for a moment. “Well,” Isaac begins. “We all…have…vowels in our names.”

“Scott only has one vowel,” Allison says. “So we all have at least one vowel in our name! …Just like almost everyone in this city,” she realizes, trailing off with a snort.

Her laugh is infectious; Scott can’t help but join in. “We are doing _so_ good.”

“Okay, we can do this,” Isaac says around a huge grin. “Uh…did you guys play sports in high school?”

“Yeah!” Scott says quickly. “I played lacrosse for four years.”

Isaac’s eyes widen in excitement. “No way, me too!”

They turn to Allison. “Well,” she says, “I did gymnastics and archery, but my school didn’t have official teams for those.” She smiles at them. “That’s really cool that you both played lacrosse, though. My school was all about football; lacrosse sounds like it would’ve been fun.”

“Well, we’re all athletic,” Scott says. “Or, well, we were in high school.” He leans back, shoving a few balls out of the way. “Uh…what’s your favorite candy?”

“Reese’s Pieces,” Allison says immediately. “For sure.”

Scott grins. “Me, too! Chocolate and peanut butter, I mean, what more do you need?”

“Yeah, Reese’s are pretty good,” Isaac says with a nod.

“But not your favorite,” Allison says.

Isaac shrugs. “I never really had a favorite one. I’m not super big on chocolate.”

“That’s cool,” Scott says. He digs for another ball, shoving himself further into the pit to chase a labeled one that falls further down. “How about we get back to that one later; I’m sure we’ll figure something – uh oh.”

Hands grab his shoulder on either side and dig him out of the pit. “You okay?” Allison asks, brows furrowed in concern.

“Yeah,” Scott says, patting his shirt. “But I think I lost-”

“Scott, I think we dropped your mic!” Kira calls.

He pulls up the fallen end from his seat as an assistant hurries over with more tape. “…yeah, that.”

Isaac snorts. “We’re so good at this,” he says, digging a tin of mints out of his pocket while the assistant reattaches Scott’s mic. “Want one?”

Allison leans across Scott’s lap to grab one. “Thanks! What are they?”

“Ice Breakers,” Isaac says without thinking. Allison and Scott blink at each other before bursting into laughter at the pun. “Oh, shut up. It’s not that funny.”

“It’s pretty funny,” Scott says while Allison nods next to him. He steals another Ice Breaker before holding up the ball he’d rescued earlier. “Okay, so this one says – oh wow.”

Allison’s eyebrows shoot up. “That bad?”

Isaac cranes his neck over Scott’s shoulder. “Talk about an experience that changed your life,” he reads. “Wow, we’re getting deep.”

“Someone wanna go first?” Scott asks, glancing on either side of him. Isaac shrugs carelessly, and Allison’s mouth twists as she stares down at the ball pit. “Okay. Well, um, I guess my life really changed when I became a werewolf.”

“Oh.” Isaac scoots closer; on Scott’s other side, Allison tilts her head curiously. “You weren’t born a werewolf?”

Scott shakes his head. “No, I was bit. It was, uh-” He laughs nervously. It’s been years, he’s okay with it, he really likes being a werewolf…but the story itself never became comfortable for him.

Allison’s hand drops over his. “You don’t have to tell us,” she says, ducking forward to peer up at Scott. “It’s a very personal experience for a lot of people.”

Isaac nods, pressing even closer to his side. “It definitely was for me,” he says. “My alpha – former alpha, I guess – I mean, it was definitely something I needed, and I wanted it, but…neither of us were really in the greatest spots.” Scott’s sleeve bunches as Isaac shrugs. “I don’t regret it, and we’re okay now, but. It wasn’t clean-cut the way they tend to be in the movies.”

“Tell me about it,” Allison says, letting out a breath. “It didn’t happen to me, but my best friend…it’s like you said, nothing like in the movies. No dramatic orchestra, no instant bond with a loving alpha, the bite doesn’t heal all neat and clean.” She huffs, tossing a ball into the bit a little more viciously than before. “Nothing about it’s neat and clean, actually. The movies always make it into this pretty, hyper-idealistic montage, and it was nothing like that for my friend, and I didn’t even know how to help her half the time.”

“I know the feeling,” Scott says. He tosses the ball back and forth between his hands. “My best friend…he tried, and he got me through it, but it wasn’t easy. Oh, geez, that was a total downer and I didn’t even answer the question. Well anyway, I guess-” He tosses the ball too high and narrowly misses hitting Allison in the face. “Oops, sorry. Like with you guys, it wasn’t the cleanest transition, so I just had a lot to figure out, and most of it was on my own.”

“Sounds like you had a pretty shi – bad alpha, too,” Allison says.

Scott shrugs. “Yeah. But it was kind of for the best, really, I ended up learning a lot about myself and what I could accomplish. I mean, don’t get me wrong,” he adds, leaning back against the bench, “it _sucked_ at the time, and I wouldn’t have gotten through it without my best friend sticking with me.” Allison smiles faintly. “But now I can look back at it and say that…I’ve become a better version of myself because of it.”

“I know what you mean,” Isaac says, nodding softly. Then he snorts. “Hey, that’s what we all have in common!”

“What? We all bad experiences with alpha werewolves?” Allison says.

“No – well, yeah, that, definitely that,” Isaac says. “But we all dealt with not-so-great werewolf transitions, and we all got through it because of our friends.”

“Huh,” Scott says. “Yeah, that’s a way nice way of putting it.”

“I try,” Isaac says modestly, then starts digging for another ball. “Okay, let’s do one that’s less of a downer.”

Allison fishes one out. “Ooh, I got one.” She holds it out to them. “Create a secret handshake.”

“A three-way handshake?” Scott says.

Allison wades out to the center of the ball pit to form a triangle. “Hey, we’re all athletic and most of us are werewolves. How hard can it be?”

(After half an hour and Kira interrupting to tell them that the handshake “doesn’t have to be perfectly memorized, guys, and we’re running out of daylight,” the answer turns out to be: very.) 

 

* * *

 

 

Isaac crosses the street and lingers on the corner, waving at Kira and the crew as they set up the ball pit for the day’s filming. It’s more than a little silly to come back and – what? Hope that he’d run into the same people who wandered by at the same time the day before with a lot of free time on their hands?

He’s being stupid, he knows. There’s no reason to believe that Allison or Scott would come back. The film crew’s in the middle of downtown, surrounded by shops and at least three different cafés. It’s hardly a part of town that someone would pass through every day, especially if they had enough time to hang out in a ball pit with a complete stranger. He sighs and heads towards the closest café, reaching for the door only for it to slam open and hit him in the face.

“Oh jeez, I’m so sorry!” a voice calls from the other side of the door. It sounds vaguely familiar, but Isaac’s having trouble placing anything through his streaming eyes and stinging nose. Blurry fingers hover in front of his face. “I don’t think it’s broken, but – oh my god, _Isaac?_ ”

“Huh?” Isaac blinks, shakes his head as his eyes go cross-eyed, and then immediately regrets shaking his head. The man in front of him slowly comes back into focus, dark eyebrows scrunched over warm brown eyes and a tense jaw that doesn’t quite match up with its other side – “Scott?”

Scott beams even as his eyebrows draw up in concern. “I am so sorry,” he repeats. “I wasn’t even paying attention – is there anything I can get you?” He grabs Isaac’s hand and tugs him into the warm café. “I can at least pay for your coffee.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Isaac says, waving his free hand and almost hitting Scott in the face. “Besides, don’t you have to get going? You seemed like you were in a rush right before, y’know…”

“…I smashed a door into your face?” Scott finishes. He laughs nervously, eyes darting down to his hand still wrapped around Isaac’s. “No, no rush, I’m…” He trails off as the door chimes open. “…good.”

Isaac turns to watch Allison shuffle away from the doorway, tugging the strap of her bag with a dejected sigh. He coughs. “Hey.”

Her head jerks up. “Isaac?” she asks, breaking into a grin that fades almost immediately. “Oh my god, what happened to your nose?”

“Um, I did,” Scott says, waving a sheepish hand. “And, like, a door.”

“It looks worse than it feels,” Isaac says with a firm nod, then pauses. “Wait. How bad does it look?”

Allison laughs and moves closer, shifting her bag behind her. “It’s not that bad,” she says. “Honest. You can barely tell.”

“Somehow, I don’t believe you,” Isaac says. He glances at Scott as they approach the counter. “Listen, uh, this is gonna sound kind of weird, but-”

The barista looks up from the cashier and frowns at them. “Scott, what are you doing back here?” he asks. “I thought it was really important you got off your shift on time because of-” he waves his hand towards the ball pit just visible through the window. “-that thing you went to yesterday.”

“Stiles,” Scott hisses urgently.

The barista – Stiles? Isaac squints at his nametag, trying to figure out if running into a door has made him start hallucinating typos – doesn’t seem to notice, waving his hands around his face as he continues with barely time for a breath. “Because you were hoping those people you met might show up again today for some weird reason even though the odds of that happening are, like-” His mouth shuts abruptly as he finally notices Allison and Isaac, then he leans to the side and mutters at Scott. “Did I just completely embarrass you in front of those people from yesterday.”

Allison has her lips pressed together while her shoulders shake from barely-contained laughter. “Um,” Isaac volunteers, “I was kind of hoping the same thing, too, actually.”

Allison apparently gives up and collapses over the counter in laughter. “Um,” Stiles says, glancing at her apprehensively. “Is she okay?”

Allison nods frantically, digging into her bag and dropping a tin onto the counter. Isaac leans down to read the label, and – “Oh my god, really?”

Allison finally catches her breath and breaks the tin’s seal. “Ice Breaker?”

Scott snorts on Isaac’s other side. Isaac bites his lip. “It’s really not that funny,” he tries, and then all three of them dissolve into giggles.

“Oh my god,” Stiles says, shaking his head at them. “You have got to be the biggest losers I’ve never met.”

 

* * *

 

“Isaac?” Allison calls, setting her gifts on the dining room table. Two elaborate bouquets are already waiting, and she takes a moment to admire them before looking around for her boyfriend.

“Backyard!”

He turns as she opens the door, pulling her in close as she leans up for a kiss. “The flowers are beautiful,” she murmurs against his lips.

He smiles and kisses her again before pulling away. “Did you get Scott’s text?”

“Yeah,” she says. “Said he’s running late at the hospital and to start without him.” She rolls her eyes. “Like we could really celebrate our anniversary without one of us here.”

“Yeah, about that,” Isaac drawls, and turns so she can see the rest of the yard. “I think he’s planning something.”

Allison stares at the inflatable pool filled with plastic balls sitting on their lawn. “Oh my god.”

Isaac helps her into the ball pit before sitting down next to her. “…Yep,” he says after a moment. “This is exactly as awkward as it was five years ago.”

“Yeah, we should’ve waited for Scott to get here and tell us what this is all about,” Allison says, pushing the plastic balls around. One rattles when her hand brushes it, and she picks it up with a frown. “Hey, look. This one has something in it.”

Isaac scoots closer as she opens the ball. “He better not have…” He groans when Allison tips two Ice Breakers and a folded piece of paper into his hand. “Oh my god. It really wasn’t that funny!”

“It gets funnier every year,” Allison says, tossing a mint into his mouth before unfolding the paper. “…Huh.”

“What’s it say?” Isaac asks, propping his chin over her shoulder. He frowns down at the question mark printed neatly on the paper. “I don’t get it.”

“Me neither.” She sits back and hears another ball rattle. “Oh. Oh! There’s more of them. They probably spell out a message.”

Isaac digs for another rattling ball. “I hope it’s a short one. Otherwise we’ll still be looking by the time Scott gets here.”

Ten minutes later, they’ve run out of rattling balls – strewing nearly half of the empty ones all over the lawn in the process – and find themselves frowning down at four pieces of paper while they munch on Ice Breakers. “You, Me, Will, question mark,” Allison reads. “Huh.”

“Who’s Will?” Isaac asks, scratching his head. His eyes widen, and he abruptly turns towards Allison. “Oh my god. Do you think he’s asking us for a foursome with some guy named Will?”

A ball comes flying from the direction of their house and hits Isaac square on the nose. “Hey!”

Scott steps onto the lawn with his hands tucked behind his back. “Definitely not a foursome,” he says with a nervous laugh. He nods at the ball. “Open it.”

“Yeah, yeah, after you bruised my face _again_ ,” Isaac mutters, popping the ball open. “…Oh my god.”

“What?” Allison crowds in close to read the piece of paper. Her jaw goes slack. “Oh my god.” She looks up at Scott. “Oh my _god_.”

Scott kneels in front of the ball pit and holds out an open ball with gleaming bands resting inside. “Will you marry me?”

“Oh my _god_ ,” Allison says. She and Isaac reach forward at the same time, yanking Scott headfirst into the ball pit. “Scott. Oh my god.”

Scott laughs faintly. “Is that a yes?” he asks.

Isaac grabs the ball from his hand. “That’s a _hell_ yes,” he says, punctuating his words with a smacking kiss.

Allison grins and pulls Scott in for her own kiss, admiring the ring that Isaac slides onto her finger. “Definitely yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come say [hi](http://pocketlass.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
